Attempt #1

[dmilwain]

I have never tried to shoot in a studio setting before now, and I would LOVE some critiques and a shove in the right direction. This photo is of my girlfriend, who was kind enough to sit through this. :)

I used, as you can see in the second image, two lamps w/ umbrellas. I also used my 420EX dialed all the way down. This image is at 1/60s and f/5.6 with the 24-85mm lens set at 85mm.

No post-processing on the photo, mainly looking for lighting critique, but any help is GREATLY appreciated. I'm looking to attempt again tonight and would love some feedback.

thanks a bunch!
-david

www.dmilwain.blogspot.com

[Poster Of U]

David,
Are you using a tripod for the camera, If not you need a little more light and a faster shutter speed. If you look at her nose just a little blury, maybe from the camera moving. Also the picture is just a little to dark. Can't wait till tonights pictures, try to get her to smile.
James

[dmilwain]

The camera was on a tripod, and I do have more with her smiling. I'm mostly looking for critiques on the lighting however.

This is another one from earlier. This time with some lightening and sharpening in PS.
-david

www.dmilwain.blogspot.com

[elbirth]

that 2nd one is great, the brighter look looks much better. I think the lighting looks good (I've never done studio shooting myself).

[mnfinnkidd]

yes..a drastic improvement on the second photo. Good work

[MattL]

Not sure how much room you have, but try set that background up as wide as it will go, and move your model further away from it.
Try and get the background tight so you dont get those funky droops in it, that fabric has a really high sheen, so it shows up very well.

The second one is great. Maybe just angle the camera a little bit more down :P

Now, come take a look at my first studio attempt and give me some tips!
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=86541

[dmilwain]

Once again I tried this setup. This time with no flash, unfortunately the lamps I am using are just not strong enough - they're borrowed, so I cannot complain.
85mm
TV - 1/60s
AV - f/5.0

The flash was creating large shadows tonight which were'nt apparent last night...so I stopped using it. Keep in mind Jenn wasn't posing, she was mostly just sitting there for me to photograph.

Please let me know what I'm doing wrong and if I'm doing anything right .
-david

[MattL]

If you cant get brighter lights, and these are just for you to learn with, crank up your ISO.
You need to get your shutter speed up a bit. try for at least 1/125.

The shadow from your flash is visible in the first shots if you look closely, around the hair.
Today she has her hair up, which will show the shadows around her neck alot more.
You can get around this by moving your flash off the camera, with a hot shoe cord,
or by bouncing the light of a wall or similar.

While your fiddling round like this, try and get her to try different poses. I found working out natural looking poses to be very difficult, so you may wish to get the extra practise in.

I bet if you got some way stronger lamps, you could have some great images there :-)

Keep it up.

[MattL]

Also, im not sure if you tried straighting out the background / moving her further away, (it looks like you have) but it looks much better than yesterdays in that respect :-)

[dmilwain]

Thanks a lot Matt, you're really helping, I wish I had had more time with her tonight to mess around with these ideas.

I did straighten out the background, and I flipped it over so the dull[er] side was used. I however, did not move her further away in this image as I found it created a greater amount of shadow.

For some reason I didn't even think to change the ISO, I'm used to film and not using the variable ISO, huh, well for sure I'll bump that up to around 400-800 depending on noise from the 10D. This would've been shot with 100ISO, and yesterdays were on 200ISO...so you bring up a good point!

She was reading and I was busy playing with lights so every so often I'd say "look here" and she would. Next time I'll put more effort forth to share, haha.

Thanks again Matt,
-David

[dmilwain]

I also noticed shes a fair bit softer than yesterday due to the wider aperture...We'll fix these.

-David

[MattL]

Its not much help here - i can see you dont have a very high ceiling to work with, but if your lights were casting shadows on the background when you moved her further away, then you could solve that by putting your lamps higher up - so the shadows would fall on the ground / lower wall behind her.

In the absense of a model, lean a broomstick against your chair and tape a baloon to the end. You'll be able to see the effect of moving lights around without boring your model :)

[Zeke]

I had a quick tinker in Photoshop...

[amazingimages@bellsouth.n]

i don't know alot about lighting, but i know that if you put your tv on 60 and your f/stop on f/8 it will be clear and bright. i use it all the time in my studio.

[elbirth]

I had a quick tinker in Photoshop...

I like that you got his image brighter, but honestly, I don't think that's a very good airbrushing job.... she looks more blurry than plastic-like, which you see in Playboy and other more pro-style photography...

[Zeke]

I like that you got his image brighter, but honestly, I don't think that's a very good airbrushing job.... she looks more blurry than plastic-like, which you see in Playboy and other more pro-style photography...

I think you'll find the original photo was slighty out of focus to start with, and as I said, it was a quick tinker (quick being the operative word). I am far more fussy with the post process of my own material.

[MattL]

i don't know alot about lighting, but i know that if you put your tv on 60 and your f/stop on f/8 it will be clear and bright. i use it all the time in my studio.

That is simply incorrect. In your particular setup, 1/60 at f/8 may produce 'clear and bright' images, in his case it most certainly will not.

He is already underexposed at 1/60 f/5, so increasing his fstop to f/8 will, in his case produce dark images.

Shutter speeds and Fstops are simple once you get your head around the idea that your trying to control the amount of light getting to the sensor. Ovbiously that means that if it is dark in one room, and light in the next, it wont work very well unless you understand, and adjust your settings.

Perhaps reading up on exposure (search this forum, or amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0817463003/qid=1105627594/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6412478-2865734?v=glance&s=books)) will aid in your quest for better photographs.